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Excalibur
The Excalibur (エクスカリバー, Ekusukaribā?) is an Artifact Long Sword-class weapon available in Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. It is forged from an Orihalcon, and it has one of the highest base attack ratings of any weapon in the series and one of the most powerful Unleashes as well. Basic Description The Lost Age In The Lost Age, Excalibur increases its wielder's base Attack by 180 points, second only to the unique Sol Blade and the cursed Darksword. The blacksmith in Yallam, Sunshine, forges Excalibur at random from Orihalcon at a rate of 5%. The initial price is 29200 coins, and it can be sold for 21900 coins and bought back for the same. As a Long Sword, it can be wielded by Felix, Piers, Isaac, and Garet. Its Unleash effect, Legend (セレスレジェンド, Seresu rejendo?, lit. Ceres' Legend), deals a Jupiter-aligned attack equal to the user's normal physical attack with 73 damage points added to the results, and there is a 60% chance that it will multiply the resultant damage by 3. Therefore, it can be said that this Unleash has an average damage multiplier of 2.2. Visually, Legend resembles a purple light hologram of a symbol forming above the enemy party, generating either one or three holographic swords that drive into the target, depending on whether the damage was tripled by the effect. Dark Dawn In Dark Dawn, Excalibur is obtained in much the same way—give Obaba an Orihalcon and hope she forges this. Unlike Sunshine, Obaba will give it to the party for free. As a Long Sword, it can be wielded by Matthew and Tyrell. With Dark Dawn's different Unleash mechanics, Legend is now the fourth and final Unleash that the wielder may gain the ability to randomly choose from whenever he unleashes. Its first Unleash is Critical Move, which is simply a physical attack with the resultant damage multiplied by 1.4. Its second Unleash is Rolling Attack, a Jupiter-aligned attack equal to the user's normal physical attack with the result multiplied by 1.1, and hits each adjacent foe. Its third Unleash is Sky Diver, a Jupiter-aligned attack equal to the user's normal physical attack with 66 added damage, and the chance to Stun the target. Analysis The Lost Age The Excalibur is one of the game's best weapons, competing with the Sol Blade for the sheer power of their unleashes. The one Sol Blade is the best weapon of all because it has 200 base attack points and its Unleash "Megiddo," after calculating damage and modifying it based on the combatants' Venus power and resistances, automatically triples the damage. An Excalibur, on the other hand, has 180 attack and its Unleash effect adds 73 damage points and applies the combatants' Jupiter power and resistance levels before deciding to triple the damage, but there is only a 60% chance that Legend will triple the damage. Whenever Legend does triple the damage, the damage surpasses even the Sol Blade's Megiddo (even though there are no Jupiter Adepts that can equip an Excalibur and therefore increase the power of the Legend Unleash, whereas the Venus-based Sol Blade can only be equipped on Venus Adepts), but it will only occur for the player 60% of the time so the average damage you can inflict with an Excalibur is ultimately lower than what the Sol Blade consistently yields. (The average multiplier is 2.2, compared to 3.) Nonetheless, being in many ways the second-best weapon in the game which you can get multiple copies of means that an absolutely ideal team in terms of sheer power will probably have one Venus Adept with the Sol Blade and the other three longsword-users equipped with Excaliburs, which is a testament to the weapon's practicality. Like the Sol Blade, Excalibur is also one of the best offensive measures to use against the Doom Dragon final boss. The Excalibur and the Sol Blade are the two strongest of what players identify as several "ultimate weapons" in The Lost Age, with the others being Tisiphone Edge and Masamune. These other two weapons also have Unleashes that multiply their damage ratings. The Tisiphone Edge is a light blade with a Venus-based Unleash that adds 71 damage points and may either multiply the damage by 1, by 2, or by 3. In the long term, the effective multiplier is 2.2, the same as Excalibur. This wild potential for power may make it better for Venus Adepts not equipped with the Sol Blade to equip this than an Excalibur, but since it is a light blade, both Jenna and Ivan can wield it as well, so two copies should go onto them first before considering a third for the non-Sol Blade Venus Adept, especially if they have Venus levels. The Masamune is Mercury-Based and generally does less damage than the other ultimate weapons because it multiplies its damage only by either 1 or 2, but if there is no Excalibur for Piers to wield then this weapon would work great for him at any rate. Dark Dawn In Dark Dawn, Matthew and Tyrell are the only Long Sword users, and since Matthew would be holding the game's best weapon, the Sol Blade (which only he can equip anyway), the only character to use Excalibur is Tyrell. As a result, only one Excalibur at most can be useful for an end-game party. Like before, the Master and Chaos Lord classes are the best classes for Matthew or Tyrell to be using Excalibur with because of the top-notch attack ratings they provide and the Master class's Jupiter power boost. While still useful, Excalibur's power has abated substantially from The Lost Age thanks to the new Unleash system, which adds weaker Unleashes that the game randomly chooses from each time the user makes an Unleash with the weapon. The other "ultimate" weapons weaken in power for the same reasons, but Excalibur is particularly downgraded in usability because it now has three other unleashes that are all weaker than Legend. The first Unleash that the wielder may learn to trigger, Critical Move, is a physical attack with a damage multiplier of x1.4. To put this in perspective, the Wooden Stick has a multiplier of x1.5 when it Unleashes (though to be fair, the comparative weakness of said weapons and others that use that unleash would result in a smaller overall damage bonus). The second Unleash, Rolling Attack, is a Jupiter-aligned attack equal to the user's physical attack with a x1.1 multiplier, and it hits each adjacent foe, up to three at once. This is somewhat useful in random battles, but it is weak even for a multi-target attack, compared to the Darksword's Spiral Assault Unleash. Excalibur's third Unleash, Sky Diver, is another Jupiter-aligned Unleash, and while it adds 66 damage and may Stun the target, it has no damage multiplier. Since all three of the Excalibur's elementally-aligned Unleashes are aligned with Jupiter, the increased Jupiter Power of the Master class does become a bonus that is all the more relevant. But unfortunately, with Legend now being one of four randomly chosen Unleashes, on top of its only having the chance to trigger its damage-tripling effect when it is Unleashed, scoring that enormous burst of damage with an Excalibur unleash is now rather uncommon. As a result, Excalibur's consistency has gone down a lot, and it is now given fierce competition by the Levatine as a weapon for Tyrell. While the Levatine's first Unleash is the same wimpy Critical Move, it lacks a fourth Unleash, so each better Unleash happens more frequently. On average, Excalibur has a damage multiplier of about x1.4, whereas Levatine has x1.6. A damage-tripled Legend Unleash is still potentially the most powerful Unleash in the game, but it triggers so uncommonly that it might be a waste on most enemies. Overall, Excalibur does not deal as consistently high damage in Dark Dawn as it did in The Lost Age. It is still good for Tyrell if the player manages to forge it from an Orihalcon without getting a Levatine from a Mythril Silver, but this scenario is unlikely because the Levatine has a higher chance of being forged, and Mythril Silver is a more common material anyway. On an ideal endgame party, Levatine is easily the better choice as Tyrell's weapon. Etymology Excalibur is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Great Britain. In ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. Extended Gallery File:Legend.jpg|The Excalibur Unleash as it appears in Dark Dawn Category:Artifacts Category:Items forged from materials Category:Jupiter-based Unleash effects Category:Damage-multiplying effects Category:Weapons with four Unleashes Category:Weapons with non-elemental Unleashes